Splash guard



Oct. 16, 1951 Ew s 2,571,730

SPLASH GUARD Filed May 23, 1950 Patented Oct, 16, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SPLASH GUARD Beulah Mae Lewis, Wilkinsburg, Pa.

Application May 23, 1950, Serial No. 163,690

1 Claim.

This in$itlion relates to splash guards protecting from s01 ing the hosiery, legs and feet of the wearer whdle walking on wet ground.

The splash guards existing previous to my invention protected ub tantially the heel side and those areas of the g and hosiery of the wearer which they actually covered so that the small ones gave insufiicient protection and the larger ones were cumbersome, unsightly, reduced ventilation, increased perspiration, were inconvene ient to wear, to clean, and to carry.

My invention obviates these and other drawbacks by providing a relatively small splashguard have a tie-portion encircling the leg of the wearer from which downwardly extending is an open spat-portion loosely covering above, but somewhat short from the shank level the instep, ankle, and heel regions of the foot, and upwardly extending is a saucer-like diverging or outwardly flaring collar-portion which shields from splashing the uncovered areas of the hosiery and leg within the collars projection taken from the origin of the splash on the ground.

Furthermore the invented splash guard is made substantially of a relatively thin, hence light, flexible, transparent and waterproof sheet material such as a synthetic plastic, cellulose acetate and the like which has sufficient strength to wear well and suitable rigidity not to crumble or collapse but keep its shape even if weighted by mud splashed upon it.

By virtue of the transparency of the material of the invented splashguard the leg, footwear and hosiery of the wearer are always discernible hence the invented splash guard does not add to their apparent dimensions, does not make them unsightly or clumsy but on the contrary their pleasing features are enhanced and accentuated by the transparent, neat and decorative guard. The transparency also enables the wearer to check constantly the condition of the areas on the ground as well as on her shoe and foot covered by the guard hence the efficiency of the device and is guided as to the speed and manner of stepping required for best results.

The waterproofness and relatively small size of the invented guard insure its convenient and quick cleaning by rinsing with water and its convenient carrying in a pocket or pocketbook.

Hence one object of my invention is to provide a splash guard that employs a saucer, cup, or disk-like diverging or outwardly flaring split collar-portion that encircles the leg of the wearer through at least 360 and thereby shields all leg and hosiery regions which are within its projection upon any perpendicular cross sectional plane of the leg, taken from the point of origin of the splash on the outline of the sole, shank and heel of the shoe, whereby the range of protection becomes larger in area than that of the cross section in that plane of the uncovered Portion of the leg.

Another object is to provide a splash guard which has a relatively narrow, elongated tieportion adapted to encircle and contact the wearers leg, adjacent to, and above the ankle, in a fashion of a split ring and is equipped with attachment means and tying means for exerting pressure to secure by friction the tie-portion to the leg of the wearer.

A further object is to provide a splashguard employing a tie-portion, collar-portion and spatportion the developed shapes or blanks of which are in the same order: elongated quadrangular; vertical U with vertical legs that are cut short; seven sided plane figure having at the top two straight sides separated by two concavely curved, downwardly converging, substantially symmetrical sides, one left and one a right, downwardly diverging sides connected by a downwardly convex bottom side.

Another object is to provide a splashguard which contacts the leg of the wearer over a substantially narrow, annular area and employs a saucer-, cupor disk-like diverging or outwardly flaring collar-portion extending upwardly radially therefrom and a downwardly extending spat-portion which loosely covers without pressure the instep, ankle, and heel regions of the foot and shoe, respectively, above, and somewhat short from the shank level.

Another object is to provide a device of the character described which, under pressure, frictionally contacts only a relatively narrow annular area of the leg of the wearer whereby it will not interfere withthe ventilation of the foot and leg.

Another object is to provide a device set forth the material of which is composed chiefly of relatively thin, waterproof and transparent sheets through which the covered foot, leg, and hosiery regions are discernible and which is sufiiciently flexible to be draped around the leg of the wearer, adequately strong to wear well and has proper stiffness to keep its original shape and not to collapse even when weighted by splashed-on mud.

A further object is to provide a splash guard of small dimensions and weight relative to its protective range enabling quick cleaning by rinsing with water and convenient carrying-in a small space such as in a pocket or pocketbook.

Another object is to provide a splash guard employing a resilient tying means such as an elastic ribbon and attachment means such as coacting male and female snap fasteners fixed to the tie-portion and tying means, respectively, whereby the latter is selectively attachable and detachable to and from the former and a substantially uniform radial pressure is obtained thereupon causing equally distributed friction between the tie-portion and leg of the wearer which will not cause injury to skin or hosiery.

Another object is to provide a splash guard having a saucer-, cup-, or disk-like diverging or outwardly flaring collar portion fashioned of multiple layers of sheet material for increasing the inertia and section moduli of its cross sections and thereby its strength and stiffness and at the same time preserving sufficient pliability to be adapted to be draped around the leg and foot of the wearer.

A further object is to provide a splash guard comprising a tie-, a collar-, and a spat-portion held together by suitable attachment means such as thread-stitching, lacing, cementing, fusing and the like.

The achievement of these and other objects and advantages by my invented splash guard will be apparent to those versed in the art when perusing the following description and accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the first preferred embodiment of the invented splash guard shown fastened to the leg of a person by tying means such as an elastic ribbon and attachment means such as snap fasteners;

Fig. 2 is a partial developed view of the first embodiment as it substantially is flattened out in the plane of the drawing paper and drawn to a larger scale, showing chiefly the tie-portion of the guard to which an elastic ribbon is fastened by male and female snap fasteners;

Fig. 3 is a fragmental cross sectional view taken on line 3-3 in Fig. 2 but in a mounted or operative (and not the flattened out) position of the splash guard. The thickness of the sheet material of the guard is shown exaggerated for the sake of clarity of the' drawing;

Fig. 4 is the developed view of that part of the sheet material of which the collar-portion is made showing its pattern or blank;

Fig. 5 is the developed view of that part of the sheet material of which the spat-portion of the guard is produced showing its pattern or blank;

Fig. 6 is the cross sectional View, to a somewhat larger scale, of the first preferred embodiment of the invented splash guard, the section being taken in the vertical plane bisecting the heel and leg (not shown) to which the guard is applied. Also in this figure the thickness of the sheet material is shown exaggerated;

Fig. '7 is a fragmental cross sectional view taken on line 1-1 in Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a fragmental developed view of a second preferred embodiment of the invented splash guard in which the tying means, an elastic ribbon, is fixed at one of its end portions to the tie-portion of the guard by stitching and at the other end portion by snap fasteners;

Figure 9 is a fragmental developed view of the third preferred embodiment in which the tying means is a shoe lace like ribbon and the attachment means holding it to the tie-portion is a cover strip fixed to the middle region of the 4 tie-portion forming with it a tubular structure through which the ribbon is threaded;

Fig. 10 is a partial, developed view of the fourth preferred embodiment of the invented splash guard in which the attachment means are retainer strips fixed to the tie-portion and the tying means is a ribbon held by these retainer strips to the tie-portion.

Same numerals designate same parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring closer to the drawing by the characters of reference Figures 1 to '7 show the first embodiment of my invention in which the splash guard in general is denoted .by the numeral l2. Its component parts are: tie-portion l3, collarportion l4, spat-portion l5, binder strip l6, reinforcement strap ll, male snap fasteners l8, female snap fasteners I9, elastic ribbon 20 and stitchings 2| 22, '23, 24, and 25. Figure l, representing this embodiment of the invented splashguard as applied to the leg of the wearer,' does not show the stitchings for the sake of the clarity of the drawing. In the rest of the figures these stitchings are shown by relatively long dashes while hidden boundary lines of the parts of the guard are indicated by relatively short dashes.

Tie-portion l3, as shown in Figures 2 and 3,- is substantially an elongated, quadrangular piece of the sheet material used which is preferably folded so that the longitudinal original or rough edges are turned inwardly, the resulting cross section resembling a flattened C forming double layers of the sheet material for better finish and increased strength with preservation of sufficient flexibility.

To tie-portion means, such as stitchings 2|, male snap fasteners I8 and female snap fasteners [9, are fixed to-' gether with tying means such as elastic ribbon 20 of the required width and length as determined by the size of the tie-portion.

Collar-portion I4 and spat-portion l5 of the splash guard I2 are secured to tie-portion l3 by suitable fastening means such as stitchings 23, the collar-portion extending upwardly and the spat-portion downwardly from the tieportion when applied to the leg and foot of the wearer. I call the dimensions of these portions in circumferential direction their lengths and in ankle-shank direction their widths.

The pattern or blank I4 of the sheet material of which collar-portion I4 is made (see Fig. 4) has a shape that is similar to a U with legs cut short as indicated by points ABCDE'F in its outline. The boundary sectors AB and DE are substantially in the same straight line, BCD is concave and AFE convex.

I prefer to construe collar [4 from two equal, superimposed blanks I4 secured to each other by stitching 22, running substantially parallel to convex boundary sector AFE and folding the stitched blanks over so that the rough edges of "the seam are inward (see Fig. 6). Subsequently both blanks 14 are attached along their concave boundary sector BCD, and preferably together with spat-portion [5, to tie-portion l3 by suitable fastening means such as stitchings 23 for which purpose the arcuate length of BCD is made substantially equal to the straight length of tie-portion 13.

The fastening of concave strips of collar [4.

along BCD to the straight, and into the shape of a compressed or flattened C folded, hence stiff ened, tie-portion l3 has the purpose and the corresponding unitary result that in blanks l4 13, by suitable attachment stresses are set up tending to curl and separate them. Giving to collar-portion I4 tubular cross "sections .;by forming it from two 'layers 01 material, their .moments .of inertia and section moduli are increased enhancing :the strength. and stiffness of collar I4. Furthermore, when fti'eportion I3 is bent into a split .ring with preferably overlapping ends incident :to application of the splash .guard to .a persons .leg, the aforementioned stressesare increased and cause collar I4 to assume a saucer, cup, or disk shape diverging er'fiaring sharply outwardly, away from tie portion I3 hence radially fixedly away from the leg of the wearer forming a substantially circular shield around it. As a consequence the projectional area, taken from the prints of the outline of the sole, shank and heel of the shoe, the probable origin of the splash, will extend beyond the projection of the cross sectional area upon a perpendicular plane shielding and protecting the non-covered areas of the leg and hosiery of the wearer. This effect is illustrated in Fig. 1 in which arrows P and Q, bounding the projectional. hence shielding area of collar I4, indicate the protection of the leg and hosiery of the wearer, afforded by the invented splash guard.

The pattern or blank I5 of spat-portion I5 is shown in Fig. 5. Its shape is that of a seven sided plane figure bounded at the top by two, substantially equal sides GH and JK contained in the same straight line and separated by two, substantially equal, converging concave sides HI and IJ, one left, and one right lateral, concave and downwardly diverging sides GL and KN connected by a convex bottom side LMN. The figure is preferably symmetrical with respect to axis In producing spat-portion I5 from blank I5 the latter is folded about axis IM so that the left half covers the right half (and vice versa) and they are united by suitable means, such as stitchings 25 along line JIM (or the coinciding line HIM) attaching also reinforcement strap I'I, previously folded into flattened cross sectional shape (see Fig. 7). Concave sides HI and IJ form a dart which, combined with the seam along JIM, produces a concave-convex curvature of the spat-portion conforming to the shape of the foot of the wearer above the heel, as best seen in Fig. 6. Side GH and JK become the extensions of each other and their added length (after deducting the endstrips used to form the seam along JIM) is substantially the same as that of tie-portion I3 to which spat-portion I is fixed by fastening means such as stitchings 23 along GHJK. The edges of blank I5 along GLMNK are preferably finished by a binder strip I6 folded into flattened 0 cross sectional shape and attached to spat-portion I5 by stitching 24.

By employing resilient tying means such as elastic ribbon 20 the pressure produced by its closing is substantially evenly distributed upon tie-portion I3 and through it upon the leg or hosiery of the wearer maintaining the spat-portion in loose and pressureless contact with the leg and shoe, above the shank level, respectively.

The attachment means shown, fixing the tying means to tie-portion I3 were male snap fasteners I8, female snap fasteners I9 and stitching 2I, and the fastening means, keeping the other constituent parts together were stitchings 22, 23, 24 and 25. It is obvious that instead of stitchings any equivalent fastening means such as cementing, fusing, lacing, etc. may be employed and in- 6 stead of the snap fasteners any equivalent attachment means may alsobe used, such as hooks, sliding fasteners, etc., which provide sufficient adjustment to take care of varying sizes needed by different persons.

The sheet material, collectively called sheeting, used for the different portions and parts of the splash guard, except that of the tying means, should be relatively thin, waterproof and transparent such as is obtainable from synthetic plastics, cellulose acetate, etc. of sufficient strength to wear well, and of sufficient stiffness to retain its original shape. It is also necessary that the material has sufficient flexibility to permit convenient draping around the leg.

The use and operation of the invented splash guard is shown in Fig. 1 illustrating its application to the leg above the ankle, secured by friction under pressure of the tying means fixed to the tie-portion of the guard by attachment means.

As shown in Fig. 1, when the splash guard I2 is mounted on the leg spat-portion I5 with binder strip I6 does not extend downwardly to the level of the shank but stops at a higher level leaving the shank and sole entirely free and uncovered. The result is that the spat-portion is draped only loosely on the shoe avoiding interference with perspiration and excessive soiling of the splash guard.

Fig. 8 shows a second preferred embodiment, in general denoted by 32, of my invention which differs from the first only in that elastic ribbon 20' is fixed at one end by stitching 26, instead of snap fasteners, to tie-portion I3.

Fig. 9 illustrates a third preferred embodiment, in general designated by 33, which differs from the first embodiment only in that the tying means is a shoelace-like ribbon 28 which is retained on tie-portion I3 by cover-strip 29 stitched to the tie-portion I3 at its central region forming a tubular section and is spaced sufficiently from both ends to permit overlapping of the tie-portion I3 when draped around the leg. Ribbon 28 is slipped through this tubular section and tied in a knot or bow over the applied tie-portion I3.

Fig. 10 shows a fourth preferred embodiment of my invention which differs from the third only in that that the cover strip 29 is replaced by a .plurality of suitably located retainer strips 30 fixed to tie-portion I3 serving as attachment means and holding any conventional ribbon 3I which is suitable to form a knot or bow. This fourth embodiment is generally denoted by 34.

The use and operation of the second, third and fourth embodiments are the same as those of the first, hence, no need for repeating them.

Having fully described and shown four preferred embodiments of my invention it will be understood that these are exemplary forms only for illustrative purposes and that various changes and modifications may be made therein within the scope and spirit of my invention. Hence I do not intend to limit myself to the described and shown embodiments but what I claim as new and wish to secure by Letters Patent is:

Splash guard from relatively thin, flexible sheet material comprising a tie-portion formed by an elongated strip, attachment means carried thereon releasably holding said tie-portion in annular shape, an outwardly flaring collar-portion permanently fixed to said tie-portion substantially along its whole length forming a radial shield extending at least 360 therearound, a spatportion having a straight line top side along which it is fixed to said tie-portion from which it is depending and downwardly diverging sides BEULAH IWAE LEWIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number Name Date Tweedie June 14, 1927 Willette July 12, 1927 Orr June 24, 1930 Johst Feb. 4, 1941 Mas Aug. 20, 1946 Varon et a1 June 10, 1947 Rauh May 11, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain Oct. 13, 1927 

